Elinor Carucci (born June 11, 1971) is an Israeli-American Fine Art Photographer of a North-African and Bukhari descent. She is based in New York City. Carucci has published four monographs to date; ''Closer'' (2002), ''Diary of a Dancer'' (2005), ''Mother'' (2013) and Midlife (2019). While maintaining a photography practice, Carucci has also taught at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

and currently teaches at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

MFA program in New York. In 2001, she was awarded the

ICP ICP may refer to: Business * ICP srl, Italian manufacturer of automotive equipment and kit aircraft *Ideal customer profile: see Qualified prospect * International Comfort Products Corporation, US air conditioning and heating company * Indonesi ...

Infinity Award, in 2010 a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

and in 2010 a

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

grant. Carucci's work has been included in solo and group shows at

The Photographers' Gallery The Photographers' Gallery was founded in London by Sue Davies opening on 14 January 1971, as the first public gallery in the United Kingdom devoted solely to photography. It is also home to the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, established in ...

and the

Gagosian Gallery Gagosian is a contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. There are 16 gallery spaces: five in New York City; three in London; two in Par ...

in London and

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

Museum of Contemporary Photography The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) was founded in 1976 by Columbia College Chicago as the successor to the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography. The museum houses a permanent collection as well as the Midwest Photographers Project ...

and

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

in the US.

Life

Carucci graduated in 1989 from

Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance ( he, האקדמיה למוסיקה ולמחול בירושלים), is a school for the music and the performing arts in Jerusalem. It is located on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusa ...

where she majored in music. She then served in the

Israeli Army The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branc ...

for two years from 1989 to 1991. After serving she graduated in 1995 from

Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design ( he, בצלאל, אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב) is a public college of design and art located in Jerusalem. Established in 1906 by Jewish painter and sculptor Boris Schatz, Bezalel is Israel's oldes ...

with a degree in photography and moved to New York City that same year, where she now lives with her husband, Eran Bendheim, and their two children. She currently teaches at the graduate program of photography at

while continuing her personal fine art photography projects. Currently, she is working on a project photographing her teenage children and their social cycles. Her work has appeared in

The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine Supplement (publishing), supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted man ...

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...

, W,

Aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countri ...

among many other publications. As put in a B&H Studio Visit with Carucci, her work consistently dives into the personal, yet always with the goal of finding universal meaning. Her photographs reflect qualities of the snapshot home-photo-album aesthetic, yet also that of the theatrically staged image. In this, she melts boundaries between the two extremes of

Nan Goldin Nancy Goldin (born September 12, 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is '' The Ballad of Sexual Depe ...

and

Sally Mann Sally Mann HonFRPS (born Sally Turner Munger; May 1, 1951) is an American photographer who has made large format black and white photographs—at first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death. Early life and e ...

, two of her greatest inspirations, as described in

article published in November 2006 by Edwynn Houk and in the B&H Studio Visit with Carucci.

Major works

''Closer''

Carucci's first monograph, ''Closer'', contains her earlier work focusing on immediate family and her closest relationships. A Time Lightbox article from 2013 summarizes the work as chronicling "her tumultuous relationship with her husband and parents through incidents of infidelity (hers) too much dope (her husband’s) and her parents fractious relationship and eventual divorce. The mood was gentle, though, with plenty of high notes; the everyday ebb and flow of relationships were lovingly and lavishly documented, while the larger narratives played out in the background."

''Diary of a Dancer''

Published in her second monograph, ''Diary of a Dancer'' (2005), documents Carucci's experience as a professional Middle-Eastern belly dancer entertaining at events like weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs in the five boroughs of New York. It proved difficult for her to dance and take photographs herself, so she often had the help of husband Eran Bendheim. Images in this work reflect Carucci applying makeup and preparing for jobs in dismal looking bathrooms and on subway rides, snapshots of her dancing and of the people she was entertaining.

''Mother''

Carucci's third monograph, ''Mother'' (2013), examines the world of her own motherhood. Beginning during the pregnancy of her twins and ending when they turn eight years old, she explores the realities of motherhood, to its layered and complex moments, the joys and the pains, the beautiful and the ugly, the love and the dysfunctions. Mother also shed light to the deeply sensual and erotic connections between mother and child, all of the highs and lows in photographs reflecting the range of bliss to the raw, less attractive moments.

''Crisis''

This body of work (2001–2003) narrates a tumultuous time in her marriage to Eran Bendheim. Taking place at a time when they were working through her infidelity and mind-body induced physical pain and his marijuana usage, these photographs look straight into the darkness of post-arguments, as well as at their tender moments. Carucci has described how photographing this process actually brought them closer together, as they ultimately demonstrated to each other in the taking of these photographs that their love for one another is held above all else. Photographing was a way of reconnecting.

''Midlife''

Midlife (2011-2019) chronicles the years of middle of life, a time that is overlooked by our culture and society, especially in women's life.

Publications

* ''Closer.'' San Francisco:

Chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

, 2002. . * Chronicle, 2009. . Second edition. With a foreword by Susan Kismaric. 80 photographs. * ''Diary of a Dancer.''

Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in Göttingen, Germany. It was started in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl and is still run by him. Overview The company was started by Gerha ...

Mack, 2005. . * ''Mother.''

Prestel Prestel (abbrev. from press telephone), the brand name for the UK Post Office Telecommunications's Viewdata technology, was an interactive videotex system developed during the late 1970s and commercially launched in 1979. It achieved a maximu ...

, 2013. . *Midlife.

Monacelli Press Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books on art, architecture, design, fashion, photography, and popular culture, as well as cookbooks, children's books, and travel books. The company is based in London and New York City, with additional of ...

, 2019, ISBN 978-1-58093-529-6

Solo exhibitions

* 1996: National Arts Club, New York * 1996:

, Visual Arts Gallery, Princeton, NJ * 1999:

, London * 1999: Fotografie Forum International, Frankfurt, Germany * 1999: Prague House of Photography, Prague * 2000: Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel * 2006:

Moscow House of Photography The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM; russian: link=no, Мультимедиа Арт Музей, Москва) is a Russian state museum dedicated to the presentation and development of contemporary art related to new multimedia technologies ...

, Moscow, Russia * 2006: Photography Gallery Vilnius: Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers, Lithuania * 2006: ''It's me,'' Herzlia Museum of Contemporary Art, Herzlia, Israel * 2007: Art Academy of Cincinnati, Convergys Gallery * 2007: Biennale de la Photographie, Luik, Belgium * 2010: ''My Children'', Centre pour la Fotografie Contemporaine Le Bleu du Ciel, Lyon * 2011: ''Insight'', FoMu, Antwerp, Belgium * 2014: ''Mother,'' Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York *2018: ''Getting Closer Becoming Mother''; About Intimacy and Family 1993 -2012, Cortona on the move festival, main artist show, Cortona, Itally *2020: COVID, the gallery of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, MO

Awards

* 2000: “Thirty under 30 Young Photographers to Watch”,

Photo District News ''Photo District News'' (or ''PDN'') was an American monthly trade publication for professional photographers. ''PDN'' was first published in 1980. The publication took its name from New York City's photo district, an area of photo businesses tha ...

* 2001: Winner, Best Young Photographer, ''Infinity Award,''

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

* 2002:

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Olga and Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died on April 26, 1922. The organization awards Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been ...

P * 2010: Artists' Fellowship,

(NYFA), New York

Collections

Carucci's work is held in the following permanent collections: *

, New York *

Jewish Museum A Jewish museum is a museum which focuses upon Jews and may refer seek to explore and share the Jewish experience in a given area. List of Jewish museums Notable Jewish museums include: *Albania ** Solomon Museum, Berat *Australia ** Jewish Muse ...

, New York *

* Brooklyn Museum of Arts *

Houston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art The Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art is an art museum that displays Israeli art, located on Abba Hillel Street of Ramat Gan, Israel. The museum was opened on 4 April 1987. History The building was built in the 1930s with the initial purpose of s ...

, Ramat Gan, Israel *

Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art The Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art ( he, מוזיאון הרצליה לאמנות) is contemporary art museum. History The museum was established in 1965 in Herzeliya, Israel. The museum's main focus is on Israeli and international contempo ...

* Haifa Museum of Art *

Harwood Museum of Art The Harwood Museum of Art is located in Taos, New Mexico. Founded in 1923 by the Harwood Foundation, it is the second oldest art museum in New Mexico. Its collections include a wide range of Hispanic works and visual arts from the Taos Society ...

, New Mexico *

Fotomuseum Antwerp Fotomuseum Antwerp, also known as FOMU, is a museum of photography in Antwerp, Belgium. History and programme The museum opened in 1986. The Fotomuseum in Antwerp has a historical and contemporary collection of photography that is given a new p ...

, Antwerp

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carucci, Elinor American photographers Israeli photographers Living people Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design alumni 1971 births American women photographers Israeli emigrants to the United States 21st-century American women